Primary sources & references

Core primary sources

Sengoku

Shinchō Kōki (信長公記); Kōyō Gunkan (甲陽軍鑑); Zōhyō Monogatari (雑兵物語); and the Hideyoshi-related source collection represented by Kawasumi Taikōki, Tenshō-ki, and Taikō-sama Gunki no Uchi.

Ninjutsu

Bansenshūkai / Mansenshūkai (萬川集海); Shōninki (正忍記); Ninpiden (忍秘伝); and writings on ninjutsu associated with Seiko Fujita.

Swordsmanship

Miyamoto Musashi’s Gorin no Sho (五輪書) and Yagyū Munenori’s Heihō Kadensho (兵法家伝書).

Military Classics

The Seven Military Classics (武経七書) — Liu Tao, San Lüe, Sima Fa, Sunzi, Wuzi, Wei Liaozi, and Questions and Replies between Tang Taizong and Li Weigong, the seven works fixed as the military curriculum under Emperor Shenzong of the Northern Song.

The editions actually read

An article does not read “the work” in the abstract. It reads a particular printed edition or manuscript. Because volume divisions and wording differ between witnesses, each article names the one it used. These are the principal base texts to date.

Sengoku

Shinchō Kōki — the 1881 Gaji Kanga Sho printing by Hokiyama Kageo, read through the National Diet Library Digital Collections. For the manuscript tradition, articles consult the Okayama University Library’s Ikeda Family Archive, which publishes volumes attributed to Ōta Gyūichi’s own hand.

Kōyō Gunkan — the Onkodō printing of 1892–93, checked against both a transcription and the National Diet Library images that underlie it. For the wider textual family, articles also cite the CODH / National Institute of Japanese Literature record of the 1656 Kyoto edition in twenty-three fascicles.

Zōhyō Monogatari — the two-volume manuscript published by Kyoto University Rare Materials Digital Archive (shelf mark 8-21/ソ/1). Authorship attribution and the copying note derive from that catalogue entry.

Ninjutsu

Bansenshūkai — the transcription and manuscript images published by Iga City’s Digital Museum (ADEAC). The work’s identity rests on the National Archives of Japan record (Fujibayashi Yasutake; twenty-two volumes plus one military-secret volume), and placement within the table of contents is cross-checked against the Iga-ryu Ninja Museum database.

Shōninki — the Kanpō 3 (1743) manuscript in the National Diet Library Digital Collections (DOI 10.11501/12865777). Dating and transmission follow the library’s own explanatory material.

Ninpiden — the manuscript published through Iga City’s ADEAC platform, with dating and structure taken from the accompanying catalogue.

Swordsmanship

Gorin no Sho — the Kyōzaisha Gorin no Sho: Genpon of 1939 (DOI 10.11501/1071527), read through National Diet Library images, section-level transcriptions, and the scan on Wikimedia Commons.

Heihō Kadensho — Fukui Kyūzō’s Hiseki Daimyō Bunko vol. 2 (Kōseikaku, 1937; DOI 10.11501/1074542), with publication details verified in CiNii Books.

Military Classics

The Seven Military Classics — the text is checked against a typeset edition and read alongside a Japanese woodblock printing. The woodblock edition is Wang Huan’s corrected Hyōdai Bukei Shichisho Zenbun, books 1–7 (Osaka: Bunkindō, 1846), Waseda University Library, shelfmark i13 00931. For the Liu Tao the site also uses the Rikutō collated by Kanshitsu Genkitsu, books 1–6 (Morimoto Bunkindō, 1855), and for commentary Shi Zimei’s Shishi Shichisho Kōgi, books 1–42 (1863). Each article names the book and chapter used.

Repositories consulted

Text is verified against records and images held by the following institutions. All are publicly accessible.

• National Archives of Japan Digital Archive — identity and volume count of the Bansenshūkai
• National Diet Library Digital Collections and NDL Search — base-text images, bibliographic records, persistent identifiers
• Iga City Digital Museum (ADEAC) — transcriptions, manuscript images, and catalogues for the Bansenshūkai and Ninpiden
• Iga-ryu Ninja Museum — catalogue database for ninjutsu manuals
• Okayama University Library, Ikeda Family Archive — manuscript tradition of the Shinchō Kōki
• Kyoto University Rare Materials Digital Archive — Zōhyō Monogatari manuscript and catalogue
• CODH / National Institute of Japanese Literature — textual family of the Kōyō Gunkan
• Waseda University Kotenseki Sogo Database — Japanese woodblock editions of the Seven Military Classics
• CiNii Books — publication details
• Wikimedia Commons — public-domain scans

Each article closes with links to the specific materials it used. The list above is the site-wide inventory; the evidence for any single claim belongs to that article’s own source note.

When witnesses disagree

Manuscripts and printings do not always agree on how a work is divided. Where they differ, this site does not silently adopt one system. The disagreement itself is recorded.

For example, Iga City’s published Bansenshūkai places “Seishin” as “Volume 1, Seishin 1,” while the Iga-ryu Ninja Museum catalogue assigns Seishin to Volumes 2 and 3. The article on that passage states both, naming the section as given and identifying the witness consulted.

Because pagination and volume numbers shift between editions, the phrase “the text says” is, strictly, shorthand for “this passage in this witness says.” Articles are written to preserve that distinction.

Citation policy

Each reading article names the work and a locatable division such as volume, chapter, section, or entry. Short original-language quotations appear apart from the site’s newly written translation. The explanation distinguishes the wording of the passage from contextual inference.

If manuscript or editorial numbering differs, the article identifies the digital witness used rather than silently forcing one numbering system onto all copies. The internal excerpt ledger tracks cumulative use and closes a source to new excerpts at an estimated eight percent.

What is linked, and what is not

Sources are always named. How easy a source is to obtain is not stated: ease of access is not a property of the source and is not the subject of the article.

• Images of manuscripts and woodblock editions (including Japanese printings of Chinese works) — linked
• Bibliographic and catalogue records (NDL Search, CiNii, CODH, university library catalogues) — linked
• Typeset transcriptions and digital text editions — not linked; the edition is named instead
• Explanatory articles — linked

Typeset text is not linked because a transcription is not the manuscript. Where readings diverge between editions, naming the edition relied upon carries more information than a single link.

Images

Any image used on this site must be demonstrably public domain or offered under a compatible reuse license, and every image carries a visible source and rights caption.